Europe

ROME, Feb 22 (Reuters) - The Italian coastguard rescued 573 migrants at sea who were trying to reach Europe aboard two fishing boats in distress in bad weather, a statement said on Tuesday. One body was found.

The rescue operation took place off the southern Italian coast. Three coastguard units transferred the migrants to another vessel, which will bring them ashore at the port of Augusta in Sicily.

The migrants told the coastguard the body found was that of a migrant who had died several days earlier, the statement said.

DOHA/LONDON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Neither Qatar nor any other single country has the capacity to replace Russian gas supplies to Europe with liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the event of disruption due to a conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Qatar's energy minister said on Tuesday.

With most of Qatari volumes are locked into long-term contracts mostly to Asian buyers, the amount of divertable volumes that can be shipped to Europe is only 10-15%, Saad al-Kaabi added.

VIENNA, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Russia's recognition of two separatist regions of Ukraine and its decision to send troops are the start of a new invasion and put the world on the verge of "a dark and dangerous era", U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said on Tuesday.

"Make no mistake: Yesterday's actions are the beginning of the latest Russian invasion of Ukraine," she said in a statement to an extraordinary meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's participating states, adding: "We are on the precipice of a dark and dangerous era."

VIENNA, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Talks on restoring a deal to curb Iran's nuclear programme and ease sanctions are near conclusion, a Russian envoy said on Tuesday, and sources close to the negotiations said a prisoner swap between Iran and the United States is expected soon.

"Apparently the negotiations on restoration of #JCPOA are about to cross the finish line," Mikhail Ulyanov said on Twitter, using the 2015 agreement's full name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

GENEVA, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Now that the Beijing Winter Olympics is over, U.N. rights chief Michelle Bachelet must release her long-delayed report on alleged violations in China's Xinjiang region against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

Ken Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, urged Bachelet to issue her office's findings before her March 7 speech to the main annual session of the U.N. Human Rights Council which opens next week.

MOSCOW, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Russian leader Vladimir Putin got the green light from his upper house of parliament on Tuesday to deploy Russian military forces to two separatist-held regions of eastern Ukraine for what lawmakers said would be a "peacekeeping" mission.

Inflaming a crisis with the West, the upper chamber's lawmakers voted unanimously in favour after Putin asked for permission to deploy forces abroad. That step came after Moscow recognised the independence of the Ukrainian regions on Monday, triggering international condemnation and sanctions. 

MOSCOW/DONETSK, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Germany put a new gas pipeline on ice and Britain hit Russian banks with sanctions on Tuesday, as the West responded to Moscow's recognition of two separatist regions in Ukraine and a speech by President Vladimir Putin suggesting more belligerent aims.

Putin said the territory Russia had recognised as independent covered the entire Donetsk and Luhansk regions, not merely the parts currently controlled by the separatists - a move that appeared to increase the likelihood of conflict.

KIEV, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said early Tuesday that Kiev has been urging the international community to hold emergency talks over Russia's decision on the status of Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine has been calling for an emergency summit of the Normandy Format, a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, and a special meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to address the issue, Zelensky said in a video address to the nation published on Facebook.

GENEVA (AP) — An independent human rights expert working with the United Nations is criticizing China and Russia for allegedly supplying weapons used by Myanmar’s military against civilians since it seized power last year.

Tom Andrews, a special rapporteur working with the U.N. human rights office, urged countries to halt such sales. He also called on the U.N. Security Council, where China and Russia are permanent members, to hold an emergency meeting to discuss a possible ban on sales of arms used by Myanmar’s military against civilians.

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — A fire aboard a ship carrying cars in the mid-Atlantic is dying out, a Portuguese navy officer said Tuesday, and the huge vessel is expected to be towed to the Bahamas.

The blaze on the Felicity Ace has burned for six days near Portugal’s Azores Islands. A Portuguese Air Force helicopter evacuated the 22 crew members last week, leaving the 200-meter-long (650-foot-long) vessel adrift.